Pawan Kalyan did not invite me to join his party: Comedian Ali

Ace comedian, Ali, has quit the Telugu Desam Party after a 20-year long association with it and has joined the YSR Congress. While the TDP was set to announce Ali’s candidature from Guntur, the actor changed his mind and resigned. “I have served the party for 20 years only to realise that they’re doing nothing for me. They were taking too long for the announcement of my candidature and did not even tell me whether they’re allotting a ticket to me or not. so I had to quit,” explained Ali.

Although Ali and the Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan have acted together in many films and are best friends off the screen, Ali did not join the Jana Sena after he quit TDP. When asked for an explanation, Ali said, “I prefer to keep our friendship separate from politics and cinema. Besides, Pawan didn’t invite me to join his party, so I didn’t.”

The actor recalled that he had campaigned for Balakrishna in the last elections and said that he has done a lot for the party. “But they don’t value me,” he said, adding, “I am helping several people through my social service, and if I get into power, I hope to extend the same support to many more. That’s my intention of joining politics.” The actor has also known Jagan Mohan Reddy for a long time. “I used to live adjacent to Y.S. Rajasekhar’s house in Hyderabad and I’ve known his family for 20 years now. When I was considering quitting TDP, Vijayasai Reddy of the YSRCP approached me with an offer to join his party,” he said.

The Telangana Assembly elections which concluded recently did not witness a fair amount of participation from the industry unlike Andhra. Actor Ali says, “KCR being a star campaigner, TRS doesn’t need any celebrity to campaign for them.”

Top comedian Ali explains why he quit TDP and joined YSRCP, and why he didn’t join the Jana Sena despite being friends with Pawan Kalyan